Wearing a Speedo is a state of mind both in and out of the water. Now, the brand’s relaunch gives viewers a look at what “Go Full Speedo” really means.

A 90-second ad from Mirimar, running in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France and Australia, stars Stranger Things’ Dacre Montgomery, California skateboarder and surfer Peggy Oki, and the cast of Bondi Rescue.

When Montgomery is shown the door at his corporate job, he ditches the suit and dons only his Speedo. Those he encounters do the same, until the group hits the beach. An original song, “Go Full Speedo” by The Beefs, plays throughout. Time to work on our one-arm push-ups.

“Speedo has been really successful in pushing performance with the world’s best swimmers. But they recognized that the brand had lost some of its raw Aussie charm that made it loved and iconic in the early days,” says Luke McKelvey, co-founder of Mirimar.

“Together with the Speedo team, we wanted to develop a platform that could recapture Speedo’s swagger—something bold and with an attitude that only Speedo could own. Nearly every swimmer we spoke to talked about the commitment and confidence it takes to pull on a speedo, dive in head first, and push themselves in and out of the water. We love that ‘Go Full Speedo’ is a brand platform that represents a swimmer’s spirit.”

The film was directed by Scottie Cameron, an Aussie who lives and works in L.A.

CREDITS

Client: Speedo
Global SVP Simon Breckon
Content & Community Manager Anna Stevenson
Global Head of Content & Community Daniela Trece
Global Content & Community Manager Cindelle Gouin
SVP Content & Creative Paisley Wright
Head of Art Dana Brej
Junior Producer Lucy Fairbanks

Campaign Title:  Go Full Speedo

Agency: MIRIMAR Creative Group
Chief Creative Officer: John McKelvey 
Co-founder & Managing Director: Luke McKelvey 
Executive Creative Director: Nick Morrissey
Senior Art Director: Alex Polglase
Senior Copywriter: Jake Ausburn
Senior Account Director: Holly Sloofman
Executive Producer: Bill Berg
Creative Producer: Jacqui Walker
Agency Producer/Post: Margot Fitzpatrick

Production Company: Collider, Sydney
Director: Scottie Cameron
Executive Producer: Rachael Ford-Davies
Producer: Melissa Weinman
Production Manager: Kate Rule
Production/Cast Co-ordinator: Natasha Brockmeier
Director of Photography: Ryan Camody
Camera Operator B Cam: Jordan Maddocks
Art Director: Elisa Baker

Editorial Company: The Editors, Sydney
Editor: Grace O’Connell
Executive Producer/MD: Nicoletta Rousianos
Editorial Producer: Isabella Key
Flame Operator: Stu Cadzow
Colourist: Matt Fezz

Music
Original track: “Go Full Speedo” The Beefs.
Original Music and Lyrics – The Beefs
Production – Sammy Smith 

Sound Design and Music Post: Sonar Music, Sydney
Senior Sound Designer: Andy Stewart
Additional Music Production: Josh Pearson 
Additional SFX & Foley: Joel Dias and Liam Del Prete 
Head of Production: Haylee Poppi

John McKelvey is an Emmy-winning writer and the founder and chief creative officer of Mirimar Los Angeles and New York, working at the intersection of advertising, entertainment and technology.

John was previously co-founder of JohnXHannes. Throughout his career, John has helped brands, athletes and celebrities tell authentic stories in culture. Clients have included Apple, Beats by Dre, Nike, Under Armour, Squarespace, Expensify, Klarna and Montefiore. His work has encompassed advertising, music videos and the feature film Corazón starring Ana De Armas, which won multiple Grand Clios.

We spent two minutes with John to learn more about his background, his creative inspirations, and recent work he’s admired.

John, tell us…

Where you grew up, and where you live now.

Then: I grew up in Tamarama Beach, Sydney, Australia.
Now: I live in Los Angeles, via Brooklyn, New York.

What you wanted to be when you grew up.

I wanted to start a company to get paid to tell stories, make movies and commercials.

How you discovered you were creative.

Writing stories and making low-budget and even lower-quality home movies with our obscenely large family video camera.

A person you idolized creatively growing up.

David Sedaris.

A moment from high school or college that changed your life.

I wrote a school play when I was 14 and got my friends to act in it, myself included. Equal parts funny and ridiculous. I led the homemade pyrotechnics, including smoke bombs for added mood, and completely smoked out the auditorium. I enjoyed the creative and teamwork aspects immensely.

The first concert you saw, and your favorite band or musician today.

First concert: INXS in Centennial Park, Sydney.

Today: I’m stuck in a good albeit repetitive loop of my favorite Prince, Otis Redding, Madonna and Amy Winehouse tracks lately, but honestly I’m in deeper on podcasts and audiobooks.

Your favorite visual artist.

David Shrigley.

Your favorite fictional character.

Marty Byrde.

The best book you’ve read lately.

BATAVIA.

Your favorite movie.

Goodfellas.

Your favorite Instagram follow.

Paul Nicklen, and give me anything ocean, whale or especially Orca related and I’m in.

How Covid-19 changed your life, personally or professionally.

It was devastating for people, so I say this with relative perspective: I miss my family and would love them to meet my daughter. Professionally: A TV series we had developed at Mirimar and sold in went away due to Covid, so that was tough after a lot of time and effort. On a positive note, my wife and I had our daughter Marlow right as Covid lockdown began. With more time spent intimately at home, we have gotten really close, which makes me very happy.

Your favorite creative project you’ve ever worked on.

Partnering with John Malkovich to launch his fashion label with Squarespace. He is so talented and I am grateful for such an enjoyable and intimate collaboration with him and the small team. It was all done for real in Paris and remains such a memorable project that turned into our Super Bowl campaign.

“Expensify Th!$” with 2Chainz and “I Will What I Want” with Misty Copeland and Gisele Bündchen all hold a very special place for me. 

A recent project you’re proud of.

Most recently we partnered with Klarna, the shopping app from Sweden, to help them launch in America. We created “Swedish For Smooother Shopping,” turning absolutely anything Swedish into hard-hitting ads for Klarna. From Swedish cinema and TV shows, to commercials, soap operas and more, we transformed 50 years of Swedish film content into 60 new films by rewriting the Swedish dialogue with reimagined English subtitles about how great shopping with Klarna is. It was so much fun to write, and together we pulled off a very original and satisfying creative project at scale.

Someone else’s creative project that inspired you years ago.

When I was younger I always admired the thought-provoking work the Glue Society was putting out from Sydney. It was so smart. I always looked up to them. Then coming to the U.S. and seeing the level of commercial film work, epitomized at that time by P&G’s “Thank you, Mom” from W+K and directed by Alejandro Iñárritu, was inspiring. 

Someone else’s creative project that you admired lately.

“You Love Me” from Beats. 

Your main strength as a creative person.

Being able to distill a creative idea down to its simplest and most compelling form and then rallying our team to make it together.

Your biggest weakness.

Obsessing over projects and spending way too much time on them.

One thing that always makes you happy.

Being in the ocean.

One thing that always makes you sad.

Environmental destruction of wild beautiful places. 

What you’d be doing if you weren’t in advertising.

An adventure travel company creating once-in-a-lifetime trips centered on surfing, sailing, heliskiing and snowboarding.

As he croons, the captions read: “A tremendous light filled the room. And three small beings appeared. They whispered into my mind. ‘Shop online with Klarna,’ they said. Then they picked up our dog and flew away. But they gave me the Klarna app. So I guess you could say we’re cool. And that’s where I was last night.”

A likely story! (Though it makes more sense than Ingmar Bergman.) The spots close with the kitschy line, “Klarna: Swedish for smooother shopping.”

Here are sooome mooore highlights:

“Strategically, and comically, it made sense to lean into Klarna’s quirky Swedish roots,” Mirimar founder and creative chief John McKelvey tells Muse. “We watched hundreds of hours of Swedish film to find the perfect combinations of footage with dialogue that is very clearly not about an online shopping app. Writing shamelessly hard-hitting Klarna subtitles gave us a good comedic hook, but also allowed us to talk about the benefits of Klarna in a way that people actually enjoy watching. Hopefully.”

He adds: “The foreign language, humor and genuinely odd Swedish content ensures the films stand out in people’s social feeds.”

Though relatively unknown in the U.S., Klarna claims more than 1 million active monthly users on these shores for its app that provides customers with payment services and deals at retailers such as H&M, Sephora, Timberland and Abercrombie & Fitch.

As online shopping surges, driven in part by the pandemic, Klarna hopes the campaign’s self-conscious quirkiness will help it stand out in a crowded field, says client marketing chief David Sandstorm.
 
“Swedish for Smooother Shopping” marks the debut of Los Angeles- and New York-based Mirimar, recently established by McKelvey, best known for his award-winning work as one-half of JohnXHannes, working on brands like Montefiore, Squarespace and Expensify, including the latter’s 2019 Super Bowl commercial.

CREDITS

Client: Klarna US

CMO: David Sandstrom
VP of Marketing: Daniel Jontén
Head of Marketing, U.S: Megan Gokey
Brand Lead: Joel Sussman
Supporting Brand Lead: Julia Grönstedt
Strategy Lead: Olivia Butter
Marketing Manager.: Elle Shaps
Social Lead: Mary Manzo
PR Lead: Sarah Ponthieu
Design Leads: Camilla Birkström, Matt Wenger, Pontus Gustavsson Production Lead: Leo Holte

Agency: Mirimar – Los Angeles

Founder & Chief Creative Officer: John McKelvey Co-founder & Managing Director: Luke McKelvey Creative Director: Jon Marshall
Creative Director: Croix Gagnon

Design Director: Mariola Bruszewska
Head of Production: Kristine Ling
Digital Producer and Creative Technologist: Natalie Sun Group Account Director: Julia Jahn
Group Account Director: Lily Waters
Account Director: Amy Farias
Head of Strategy: Alexa Calabro
Business Affairs: Nancy Espinal

Production: ​Biscuit Filmworks Editorial: Arcade Edit
Audio Finishing: Barking Owl Visual Effects: Kevin

Digital Production: Wildlife
Media agency: Noble People
Social media and influencer agency: Movement Strategy